It is with deep sadness and regret that I write this note. Our friend, colleague and AZCAM nurse died in the afternoon of December 24th, Christmas Eve, after an intense battle with the SARS Co-V 2 virus which causes the disease we know as COVID. He had been hospitalized on December 12th after only a two-day illness, and was quickly moved to the ICU on December 13th, and by the time of his death had been intubated and on a ventilator and on kidney dialysis. For someone who was deathly afraid of needles, Alan had an incredibly light and skillful touch when he started IVs, and his death in the ICU with multiple IV and arterial lines seems like a terrible irony.
I have known and worked with Alan for over twenty years. We both worked the ER on the night of Y2K – remember, when we were all afraid that all the computer systems in the world were going to crash at the same time? We both had the T-shirt that John C Lincoln Deer Valley gave us that night. We lost track of each other for several years after that, during that time we each had our own battles, both professional and with the medical establishment. We caught up with each other again about 10 years ago, when Alan became my main nurse. We had planned to retire from the practice together.
Sic transit mundum…
About a week ago a nurse named Erica Kelly agreed to step into the breach. She is not a replacement for Alan – nor should she be considered as such. She is her own person, with her own history and her own skill sets. She has a work ethic very much in common with Alan, and I think they would have worked well together in this practice, had they been given that opportunity. Alan worked with COVID patients all the time. Erica served on a COVID rapid response team before she joined us at AZCAM. Fearless warriors, both of them. Please welcome Erica as you bid Alan farewell and Godspeed.